


Shadows of Silver

by ChronicallyLiving



Category: RWBY
Genre: Angst, Eventual Romance, F/F, Hurt/Comfort, Trauma
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-23
Updated: 2019-02-03
Packaged: 2019-10-15 00:40:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,543
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17518916
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChronicallyLiving/pseuds/ChronicallyLiving
Summary: In a world stripped of its light, Ruby struggles to find her way. When she is finally forced to face her past and those she left behind, she will learn that in the absence of light, her world doesn't have to be filled with darkness.





	1. Darkness

She collapsed to her knees in the middle of the clearing as the grief overtook her body. As the despair encroached ever more into her mind, she couldn’t stop the tears from falling. She had come here in another vain attempt to escape from her demons, hoping to emulate the quiet calm of the forest inside her own mind. But her own mind was a relentless traitor, and the more she tried to shift her focus away from her grief, the more ferocious her demons became. Her grief quickly shifted to guilt, then rage, sorrow, heartache, remorse. The emotions flowed over her in waves, retreating and advancing from the edge of her psyche in a coordinated assault. A chill ran through her as a gust of wind blew through the clearing, the movement of the leaves the only sound to break the stillness of the night.

 

Until a sharp _crack_ echoed through the night. In an instant, all of her emotions were replaced with one far more primal.

 

_Fear._

 

She quickly realised that in fleeing from her own mind, she had placed herself in a very dangerous situation. Because _she_ _wasn’t alone_.

 

Her heart began pounding in her chest as her fear consumed her. She heard a second crack, followed by a long, low growl coming from the edge of the clearing behind her.

 

_A Grimm._

 

She had made it too easy for the Grimm, which was no doubt attracted by the veritable buffet of negative emotions she was giving off. But she didn’t move. She couldn’t move. Her fear became even more powerful, making her limbs feel as if they were filled with lead and covering her body in pins and needles. This seemed to enrage the monster, the negativity coming from the weak, lonely girl becoming too much for it to bear. It charged towards her, racing forward on all fours in an awkward galloping motion. The pounding of its limbs against the ground became louder and louder until she couldn’t hear her own heartbeat. The Grimm roared as it reached out to her with a grizzly hand and she closed her eyes. All at once her emotions disappeared, leaving her mind clear and calm.

 

The Grimm’s gigantic hand crashed forward into the ground, sending dirt and grass flying and leaving an impressive crater in its wake. It’s wild attack sent it rolling through the clearing, but it quickly corrected itself and pushed its way back onto all fours, roaring again as it realised it had been unsuccessful in killing its prey. It whipped its head back and forth wildly, having to rely on its poor eyesight now that the beacon of negativity that had attracted it here had suddenly disappeared. But as it began to move forward, strips of black began to float up and disappear into the night sky. The Grimm quickly realised that its arm began to dissipate from the elbow down. It roared again, frantically searching for its target before spotting her standing a short distance away. The girl was a stark contrast to the small, cowering girl it had found crying in the clearing. She was smiling cockily, her oversized red scythe resting over her right shoulder.

 

Upon locating the girl, the Grimm roared again and began to charge as fast as its remaining three limbs allowed. The girl remained where she was, unfazed by the nightmarish creature barrelling towards her. When the Grimm finally reached her, she suddenly disappeared again, reappearing on the opposite side of the Grimm. More black dust was accompanied by another furious roar as another of the Grimm’s limbs turned to dust, this time one of its legs. Left with only half its limbs, the Grimm could hardly stand, and moving at anything more than a snail's pace was out of the question.

 

The girl didn’t wait for the Grimm to come to her this time. Instead, she raced towards the wounded beast, her speed increasing rapidly until she shot past like a bullet, removing the Grimm’s remaining arm and with it, any threat the monster still posed. All it could do now was roar in anger at the girl as it lay on the ground, trying in vain to use the stubs of its limbs to lift itself up and continue attacking her. The girl pressed a button on her weapon, causing the scythe to fold up into the vague shape of a rifle. The girl trained her weapon on the Grimm’s head as she slowly walked around its nearly limbless body, her cocky smile never once leaving her face. As soon as she reached its front, she pulled the trigger, silencing the beast and reducing the rest of its body to nothing but dust and ash.

 

As the girl stowed her weapon on her back and walked out of the clearing, she laughed softly to herself.

 

“Works every time”.

 

* * *

 

It was a technique Ruby had been using on her hunts for a while now. It didn’t eliminate all the work- the creature still needed to be nearby to sense the negativity she created - but it removed a lot of the tedious work and patience that was required when tracking Grimm. Ruby had never been a patient person, so any technique that could speed up the process was right up her alley! Of course, that didn’t change the fact that producing that level of negativity meant revisiting some of her most traumatic experiences, but she didn’t have to endure it long. The rush and clarity that came with combat always whisked those emotions back to the dark corners of her mind, where they were much easier to ignore. All in all, Ruby considered it an even trade. Most of the time.

 

After she had turned in the contract to the village warden and received her Lien, Ruby had changed out of her combat gear and cape and headed downstairs to the Inn’s bar for a hot meal and a cold drink. As was her usual routine, she had chosen the most secluded part of the Inn to sit and eat her meal, in the hope of avoiding as much human contact as possible. Her current position in a dim corner at the back of the Inn also gave her the benefit of being able to see all the comings and goings in the small establishment. While she wasn’t expecting any trouble - especially in such a small and isolated village such as this - old habits were hard to break. Namely, those developed during team RWBY’s time in Atlas…

 

_Drat_ …

 

So much for ignoring the dark corners of her mind. She quickly downed the rest of her drink in an attempt to stop the memories from fully forming in her mind's eye. The bitter alcohol scorched her throat and she gritted her teeth in discomfort, but it did its job in keeping the memories at bay, for now. She looked at the other two empty glasses at her table and frowned. Having grown up being constantly exposed to the alcoholism of her Uncle Qrow, she always limited her number of drinks to three. It was an arbitrary number that didn’t have any reasoning behind it, but Ruby had yet to break her rule. She had always sworn she would never turn to alcohol to get by, but after the things she had seen… Well, everyone had their limits.

 

And with that, the memories began creeping into the forefront of her mind again. Ruby’s frown worsened as she became frustrated. Usually, by this time of night, her memories had been safely locked away and she could spend her time planning the next village to make her way to. But tonight they persisted, and she was left desperately searching for a distraction.

 

She began listening in on other conversations in the small bar area of the Inn, hoping to find something that would derail her current train of thought. Soon enough, she heard what sounded like two girls that were involved in a very animated conversation. She quickly realised the two girls were sitting at the bar, and while their excitement was what had initially caught Ruby’s attention, their topic of discussion was what kept it.

 

“You should’ve seen it, Sis! He must’ve killed, like, fifteen Beowolves all on his own! It was so awesome” The girl that was speaking was waving her arms around while she spoke, and Ruby smiled at her enthusiasm. She’d been the same way before she became a huntress. Well… before and after.

 

“Wow, fifteen Beowolves huh? Must’ve been one hell of a huntsman.”

 

“Yeah. I mean, I’ve never seen a pro huntsman in action before, but he was something else!” The girl threw her arms into the air as if to emphasise how much ‘something else’ was.

 

“Well, Huntsman or not, I’m just glad you’re ok,” said the Sister. “But you do realise Mum isn’t going to let you leave the village for like, a month, right?”.

 

Her sister’s statement did nothing to quell the girl’s excitement. “Yeah, but it was totally worth it! He was just like one of those heroes out of those stories Mum used to read us when we were kids! Did you know he didn’t even accept any payment? Crazy right!?"

 

This grabbed Ruby’s attention. She had heard of a small Grimm attack at a nearby village that had been repelled with the assistance of a travelling huntsman, but this was an interesting development. Most Huntsman would at least stay and revel in the short-lived fame that saving a village brought them, but a Huntsman outright refusing payment was nigh unheard of. Ruby leaned in closer so she could hear the conversation better, resting her elbows on the table.

 

“He didn’t ask for anything?”

 

“Nope,” replied the girl. “Said he was only passing through because he was looking for someone and didn’t want to lose the trail.”

 

“His partner?” The Sister asked.

 

“Could be, but I think it’s something much more romantic.”

 

“Oooo. A long lost lover?”

 

“Yep!” The younger girl replied. She then leaned in towards her sister, and Ruby had to strain to hear her next words. “He asked a whole bunch of people if they’d seen a girl wearing a silver cape pass through town recently.”

 

Ruby gasped at the girl's statement as a jolt of fear shot through her. Real fear this time, not the real-but-fake kind she used when hunting Grimm. Her hand instinctively reached for Crescent Rose, before she remembered she had left it in her room upstairs.

 

_She was being hunted_.

 

She had to get out of here. The village that had suffered the Grimm attack was only a day’s travel from where she was staying, which meant that her pursuer  _could already be here!_

 

Channelling her semblance, she raced through the bar towards the stairs, knocking over several chairs and tables in her panic. As she made her way up the stairs she heard the startled shouts of the other patrons at the freak gust of wind that had disturbed their night.

 

After fumbling for too long trying to get her key into the lock, Ruby finally made it inside the small room she was staying in. She frantically began throwing her possessions into her small travel pack, not stopping to figure out what was what. She had left her combat gear was still strewn across her bed, but Ruby definitely didn’t have the time to go through the process of getting changed into it. Instead, it was roughly thrown into her pack with the rest of her possessions. She then moved to the door and paused, mentally making sure she hadn’t left anything important behind. Once she had assured herself that she had grabbed all her possessions, she grabbed Crescent Rose and raced out of the room.

 

She hadn’t given any thought to where she was going, only that she needed to put as much distance between the village and herself. Now that she knew someone was searching for a girl in a silver cape, she realised she had unwittingly left behind a trail of witnesses in her travels. While she generally minimised the amount of time she wore her combat gear in public, there were still plenty of people in the towns she had stayed in that would have seen her in her silver cape as she left for or returned from her hunts. Which meant that whoever was searching for her would be able to trace her right to this very Inn.

 

Thankfully she had already paid the Innkeep in advance for her lodgings, so once she made it down the stairs she made a beeline for the door, keeping her head down and trying not to draw too much attention to herself as she struggled to weave through the displaced tables and chairs without tripping over. Thankfully, most of the other patrons were still focused on trying to explain the freakish occurrence that had knocked over half of the tables and chairs in the bar.

 

As she stepped through the door and into the night, she instantly felt less claustrophobic, taking a deep breath of the cool night air to calm her nerves. Thankfully, the Inn she had been staying at was very close to the Southeastern entrance of the villages, no doubt in an attempt to make itself one of the first things weary travellers saw when entering the town. Ruby turned and began walking swiftly towards the entrance, the large stone wall that made up the village’s perimeter rising to her left.

 

“Ruby.”

 

She froze mid-step, her heart in her mouth. She turned around slowly to face her pursuer.

 

“Jaune,” she exclaimed softly. She was rooted in place, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. It had been a long time since she had seen her friend.

 

“Heya Ruby.” Jaune was leaning against the wall of the Inn with his arms crossed over his chest, with one leg bent at the knee so his foot was resting against the wall. In her rush, Ruby had walked right past him without noticing.

 

They both stared at each other for a long while, before the silence finally got to Ruby. She reached up to scratch the back of her head, smiling awkwardly.

 

“Sooo… uhhh… Whatcha doing here?” she asked.

 

The question finally seemed to jolt Jaune out of his stupor, and he hurriedly stood up from the wall, awkwardly reaching to smooth over his pants before realising they were covered by armour. He instead opted for holding his hands behind his back.

 

“Oh, right!” He exclaimed. “Well… I’ve come to convince you to come back.”

 

Ruby sighed. She had hoped this moment would never come. It was part of the reason she had spent the last three years travelling through the most remote areas of Remnant, knowing that she could never forget her old life, but trying all the same.

 

“Jaune, you know I can’t.”

 

“No Ruby, I don’t,” he replied, anger seeping into his voice. “Nobody knows why you won’t come back, because you didn’t even tell us why you left. You just disappeared without a trace! We wouldn’t have even known you were alive if it weren’t for Weiss!”

 

Ruby’s heart stopped at the mention of her partner and she looked away to hide the tears that instantly began encroaching on her vision. She knew Jaune hadn’t dropped her partner’s name by accident. She had forgotten how mature and calculated he had become over the years.

 

She looked behind her towards the exit of the village, seriously contemplating using her semblance to make a quick escape. But before she could contemplate the idea any further, Jaune interrupted her.

 

“You can’t run from this Ruby,” he stated matter-of-factly, the anger now gone from his voice. She turned back toward him. “You might be faster than me, but I promise you I won’t give up until you’ve come home.”

 

She believed him. Something about the tone of his voice told her that no matter how far she ran to escape her past, Jaune would make sure that it always found her. That _he_ would always find her.

 

She sighed, accepting her fate. “So what do we do now,” she asked.

 

“Well, I have been walking all day,” replied Jaune. “And we just so happen to be next to the best place in town to find something to eat”.

 

Ruby cracked a smile at that. “Well I did just eat, but I guess I could go for seconds.”

 

Jaune laughed and opened the door to the Inn, before turning back to Ruby as he laid eyes on the chaos inside the Inn.

 

Ruby’s eyebrows shot upwards as she remembered the damage she had left behind in her panic.

 

“I can explain!” She yelped.


	2. At the end of the world

Team RWBY was holed up in a rocky outcrop on the side of a mountain, listening to the sounds of the battle raging in the distance. The blood red sky above was sickeningly appropriate given their current situation.

 

The girls rested against the purple-tinged rocks of the mountainside in contemplative silence, concerned for the fates of many of their friends and loved ones currently locked in combat against an endless tide of Grimm.

 

All four knew the battle raging at the entrance to the Domain of Darkness was one that could not be won, as did everyone that had volunteered to wage one final attack against Salem. Huntsman and Huntresses, Soldiers and Civilians, Faunus and Humans. Regardless of race, creed or background, the people fighting miles below had united in a final gambit against Salem’s forces, accepting that the only outcome would be their eventual demise.

 

As a particularly loud explosion rang out from the battlefield, the members of Team RWBY looked up at each other. They didn’t have to speak to know the thoughts running through each other's heads. The hopeless battle raging below had only one goal. To buy Team RWBY enough time to enter Salem’s lair and prevent her from destroying the world. 

 

They weren’t naive enough to think that Salem didn’t know they were coming. In fact, it was the only thing they were certain of. But as much as the forces of Remnant had been weakened in recent times through several devastating defeats at the hands of Salem, she had also suffered her own losses. So regardless of the fact that she now commanded an almost endless army of Grimm, Salem couldn’t afford to let the united forces of Remnant go unchecked.

 

It meant that the two sides weren’t just locked in a battle to the death, they were also racing against time. The moment the forces of Remnant were defeated, Salem would turn her Grimm towards Team RWBY, and no amount of silver-eyed magic would save them. If they hadn’t completed their mission by then, all would be lost.

 

The sound of nearby footsteps against the unstable terrain of the mountain caused all four girls to instantly jump into combat positions, ready to destroy any enemy that rounded the corner. As the familiar faces of JNR appeared, the girls lowered their weapons.

 

“Did you find it?” Ruby asked.

 

“We did,” replied Jaune. “But we aren’t going to be able to just walk in. Looks like the entrance is only accessible by airship.”

 

They all turned towards Weiss, not needing to voice the question hanging in the air.

 

Weiss frowned in thought before her expression hardened with resolve. “We won’t have long. I can’t afford to waste energy making it safe. If you fall, I won’t be able to catch you.”

 

The others didn’t need any further explanation to know the implication behind her statement. Even with Aura, a fall like that would be deadly, and if they didn’t die from the fall, they would still be taken out of the forthcoming fight. While Weiss could create a more permanent path of glyphs or even a summon to carry the group across, doing so would take a serious toll on her Aura levels. As it was, summoning the bare minimum amount of glyphs to cross the large distance to the entrance would take a significant amount of effort on Weiss’ part, something that the group hadn’t accounted for. They just had to hope the setback wouldn’t cost them dearly at a critical moment.

 

The seven of them moved to the edge of a nearby cliff, which protruded out from the face of the mountain they had climbed over. The mountains here were unlike anything else in Remnant and didn’t seem to abide by the same laws of physics as the mountains on the continents. They rose at unnatural angles from the ground as if they had been moulded into place like wet clay, and were scattered with massive gemstones and cliffs, all coloured a different shade of purple. Weiss moved to stand at the edge of the overhang, Myrtenaster held loosely in her left hand as her right extended towards the entrance, mapping out in her mind the most efficient sequence of actions she would need to take to get them across and preserve as much of her Aura as possible.

 

As Weiss prepared their path across, Ruby’s hand habitually moved to her belt, touching the cool metal of the small crown hanging from it to confirm it was still secure. Of all the gambles they had taken over the years, bringing the Relic of Choice into Salem’s lair was undoubtedly the biggest of them all. Thanks to her devastating victories in Atlas and Vacuo, Salem’s disciples had made off with the Relics of Knowledge, Creation and Destruction, leaving a trail of death and Grimm in their wake. And now, during what was the final stand of humanity, they were potentially handing her the final piece of a set that would allow her to achieve her ultimate goal.

 

If Salem managed to summon the Gods back to Remnant, it was unlikely humanity would be spared a second time. Despite the great strides that had been made in the decades after the Great War towards living in a peaceful and harmonious world, Salem and her minions had mercilessly ensured that any progress made was met with equal or greater setbacks. This back and forth struggle towards the light had culminated in the permanent deaths of both Oscar and Ozpin at Shade Academy, Salem’s use of the Relic of Destruction ensuring there would be no further reincarnations for her past lover.

 

So while the remaining forces of Remnant eventually came together to fight an unwinnable battle against their common enemy, the fallout from Salem’s recent victories and the absence of Ozpin as an intermediary and vital source of knowledge had left the separate factions divided and untrusting. Thus, Ruby’s task of convincing Remnant’s united armies to support her plan and use of the Relic of Choice had been almost impossibly difficult.

 

Self-preservation was a powerful instinct, and many had voiced their preference of taking their chances against Salem’s forces, rather than risking the final Relic falling into Salem’s hands by going after her directly. But Ruby had managed to convince most of them that with the power of three Relic’s, Salem's armies of Grimm were now unstoppable. Even with the power of Ruby’s Silver Eyes, if they truly wanted to defeat Salem then any possible advantage available to them was one that had to be taken, no matter the risk. While they were still unsure of how to activate the Relic or it’s powers, having it on their side could prove the difference between defeating Salem, or the total annihilation of humanity.

 

Besides, if Ruby’s plan did fail, a quick death following the judgement of the Gods would certainly be a preferable fate to a drawn-out demise fighting endless hordes of Grimm.

 

“I’m ready”.

 

Weiss’ statement drew Ruby out of her contemplation. She and the rest of the team looked up at Weiss, awaiting the orders that were sure to follow.

 

“Jaune, Ren, Blake, Yang, Nora, and Ruby,” Weiss stated matter of factly, listing out the order in which they would cross her makeshift bridge. Ruby was almost offended at having to bring up the rear, but she couldn’t deny the logic behind Weiss’ decision. Jaune and Ren had no means of recovering if they made a misstep, whereas the rest of the team had varying methods of saving themselves if the worst were to happen. Besides, she knew better than to question Weiss when she was this serious, even jokingly.

 

The group lined up in their assigned order, bodies tensed in preparation for the crossing. A short line of glyphs appeared in front of them before Weiss began racing across them, followed instantly by the remainder of the team in her specified order. As Weiss moved to the next glyph in the sequence, the vacant glyph she left was almost immediately occupied by Jaune, and likewise for the remainder of the team. Ruby undoubtedly had the most nerve-wracking role in their deadly game of follow the leader, because when she moved to the next glyph, the one she had just been standing on faded from existence as soon as her feet left it.

 

But Ruby trusted Weiss with her life. And Ruby knew that Weiss had just as much faith in her, which was why she had chosen Ruby to be at the back of the convoy.

 

Mercifully, after almost two minutes of crossing the temporary bridge at a near sprint, the group safely reached the other side, each member turning to ensure the person immediately following them made the final jump safely.

 

After Nora had ensured Ruby successfully bridged the final gap, the group collapsed onto the ground to catch their breath. While all seven of the young adults were far fitter than any normal human and could maintain an almost superhuman pace, the extra concentration that came with knowing one misstep could lead to their death had made the journey across far more taxing than it would have been on solid ground.

 

After resting for a spell, Ruby saw Weiss move to a sitting position. She instantly moved to her side, concerned for her condition after creating the makeshift bridge across the divide.

 

“How you holding up?” She asked, placing her hand on Weiss’ shoulder.

 

Weiss looked up at Ruby and smiled, and Ruby couldn’t help but smile back.

 

“I’ll be fine,” Weiss replied, reaching up to gently squeeze the hand on her shoulder.

 

The two partners held each other’s gaze, content with providing each other some comfort as the rest of the group recovered. But an unanswered question hung between the two girls. Both had been dancing around it for some time, their inexperience with romantic feelings and the overbearing pressure from the campaign against Salem meaning that neither had been confident enough to voice what they were feeling.

 

But now that she was figuratively and literally at the end of the world, Ruby decided that she needed Weiss to know how she felt. Glancing to her side, Ruby noticed the rest of the group had conveniently followed Yang’s lead to observe the entrance to the gigantic fortress, giving Ruby and Weiss some space to talk privately.

 

“Weiss,” Ruby began tentatively, turning back to face her partner. She took Weiss’ hands in her own, kneeling down to match her sitting position. She hesitated when she met Weiss’ eyes and saw the other girls expression, which conveyed confusion and… hope?

 

Ruby quickly pushed her doubt aside, deciding the best approach was to power through before she began to overthink this. “I know we don’t have much time, but before we go on, I need…” Ruby hesitated again, Weiss’ strange expression making it impossible to maintain eye contact any longer. She instead averted her eyes to stare at her and Weiss’ intertwined hands, taking a different approach. “Weiss, you’re the most amazing partner and friend I could have ever wished for, and no matter what happens nothing will ever change that. But you also mean so much more to me than that Weiss. I’ve never felt this way about anyone ever before. So I need you to know, that I—”

 

The remaining words got caught in her throat, which choked up at the last second. Ruby’s heart was racing, tears forming in her eyes as the weight of her almost-confession hit her. But she also realised that throughout her erratic confession, Weiss had not said a single word. She slowly drew her gaze up from her hands to once again make eye contact with her partner.

 

Weiss was staring back at Ruby, smiling softly as if she was amused at Ruby’s attempt to confess her feelings. Upon noticing Ruby’s expression quickly shifting towards despair at her amusement, Weiss reached out to place her palm comfortingly on Ruby’s cheek. Her smile broadened as the affectionate gesture wiped away Ruby’s distraught expression, the other girl reaching up to touch the hand on her face, mouth slightly open in shock.

 

“Ruby, I know.”

 

For all the jumbled words it had taken for Ruby to admit her feelings, it only took Weiss this one simple statement and gesture to admit her own in kind.

 

“Really?” Came the hopeful reply.

 

“Yes, really,” Weiss affirmed. She had never considered herself in touch with her emotions, but this was something she was certain of. “I know we might not have much time left together, but meeting you, and the time we spent together, they were the best things that ever happened to me, Ruby. I just wish we had more time, so I could show you how much you mean to me.”

 

With that last admission, Weiss’ voice broke, and tears began leaking from her eyes. But Ruby was quick to comfort her, moving in to hug her partner as tightly as possible, attempting to pour all of her love and affection into the gesture.

 

“You already have,” she whispered, as Weiss reached up to hug her just as tightly.

 

They stayed like that for a short time, relieved that their feelings were finally out in the open, but also trying to cram months of suppressed feelings into the warm embrace, knowing that they may not get another.

 

“Guys, we have to move,” Yang eventually called, apparently the only one brave enough to interrupt.

 

The two girls disentangled from their embrace, smiling at each other one last time with newfound affection before walking hand in hand to join the rest of the group on the stairs leading up to the large wooden doors of the castle. Graciously, the others made no mention of what had transpired, knowing full well that each of them had been in almost identical positions in the past.

 

“We’re not going to be able to get these doors open easily,” Yang said. “Nora, you think you could bust them open if you were charged up?”

 

Nora grinned, the idea very much appealing to her destructive side. 

 

“Piece of cake.”

 

All the members of the group bar Ruby and Nora moved to one side. Nora moved to the top of the stairs, standing a short distance from the doors, while Ruby took up a position almost halfway down the stairs.

 

Both girls unfolded their weapons to their full extent simultaneously, Nora opting to hold Magnhild across her right hip, the giant hammer angled towards the floor in preparation for an upward swing. Ruby drove the blade of Crescent Rose into the stone stairs, aiming the barrel of its rifle directly at Nora’s back.

 

“Ready?” She yelled, after confirming the correct ammunition was loaded into her weapon.

 

“Ready!” Came Nora’s excited reply.

 

This was a maneuver the two had performed several times now, with each iteration making it more efficient. While Nora was strong, anyone would struggle to stay on their feet after taking a shot from a High Calibre Sniper like Ruby’s, as they had found in the past. So instead of trying to work around this apparent downside, they had opted to make it work to their advantage.

 

The power from the shot would send Nora flying towards the door, while the lightning dust contained within the round would activate Nora’s semblance at the same time. The result: a hyper-strong pink missile wielding a gigantic hammer, ready to smash through anything in its path.

 

Ruby breathed out slowly, her finger moving over the trigger as she trained her sights on the centre of Nora’s back. But just before she pulled the trigger and created a human battering ram, a loud creak echoed from the oversized wooden doors as they began to open.

 

The group instantly readied their weapons and trained them on the ever-widening opening of the doors, prepared to destroy whatever came through the darkness beyond. But the doors opened uneventfully, leaving the group to move trepidatiously towards the entrance, expecting an attack at any second.

 

Until a hauntingly familiar voice sang out from the darkness inside.

 

_ “Little children come to play, _

_ Thinking they can win the day. _

_ They seek to kill the Wicked Witch, _

_ Until I kill the Silver-Eyed bitch.” _

 

The group hesitated at hearing the lyrics of Tyrian’s deranged singing, the full intent behind the words sinking in.

 

With one last glance at each other, they stepped over the threshold and into Salem’s castle.


End file.
